Zach Dehmer tries to turn his Morris Area opponent at the Norwood-Young America Tourney. Dehmer at 106 pounds placed third.

After winning the title the previous week at “The Clash,”, the STMA wrestling team came back home to open their Mississippi-8 Conference part of their season with a convincing 55-12 win over Big Lake Thursday, Jan. 3. The Knights had pins from Mitch McKee (113 pounds), Colten Schoen (120), Tanner Mills (132), Cole Sladek (138), and Jordan Joseph (182) to lead the way for the home team. Possibly the most exciting match of the evening was at heavyweight, where STMA’s Mikey Kessler was trailing Big Lake’s Colton Pollock, 4-3, with time ticking away. Kessler executed a body-lock throw with 10 seconds remaining, scoring a takedown and a 3-point near
fall to secure the win by a score of 8-4. The Knights improved their season dual meet record to 10-1, with the win.
The Knights then traveled to the Norwood-Young America on Saturday January 5th, where they rested most of their number one wrestlers that had competed in “The Clash”. At Norwood, STMA competed in the individual varsity tournament with mostly their junior varsity lineup. The Knights had a very good showing, placing 2nd. Eden Valley-Watkins won the tourney with 270.5 points, closely followed by STMA-268.5, then Sibley East-264, in the 8-team tourney. Leading the way for the STMA wrestlers were: Colten Schoen (120), Talon Juusola (145), and Ryan Rostamo (160), each who took first. Donnie Leuer (132), Owen Gammell (170), and Andrew Puett (182), each earned runnerup finishes, and Zach Dehmer (106) and Jeff Geiger (113), each placed third.
Next action for the Knight wrestlers is Thursday Jan. 10, as they host Monticello in a conference dual meet. On Saturday January 12th, they compete in the “Kiffmeyer” duals at St. Cloud Tech High School in an 8-team dual meet tourney for both varsity and junior varsity divisions.